Francis Kagolo
22 November 2008
Kampala — THE Nnabagereka of Buganda, Lady Sylvia Nagginda, wants more efforts to be geared towards liberating women and to augment gender equality.
She said government and charity organisations need to partner with traditional leaders to ensure that women enjoy reproductive health and gender equality rights.
"We should boost gender equality. The women must be fully empowered. We must stop violence against women in Africa," she said in a speech she delivered last Thursday during the sixth African Development Forum conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The three-day conference was jointly organised by the UN, African Union and the African Development Bank to articulate actions that could be taken to accelerate gender equality and women's empowerment on the continent.
Nagginda presented a paper on "the role of traditional leaders in promoting reproductive health and rights, gender equality and women's empowerment."
Nagginda said: "The low cultural, social and economic status of women remains the key obstacle to the full realisation of women's rights in Uganda."
She decried cross-generational sex, saying it increased HIV/AIDS infection rates in Africa and urged participants to sensitise the youth about it.
"Sexuality and reproductive health are sensitive topics, but they are no longer taboo subjects for public discussion," she stressed.
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